Archived The official Photo thread

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I hate using the APEX... Never does what I want it to. The kiosk control panel/Noritsu DLS gives me a lot more power over orders.

As an above poster said, I also recommend getting adapters.. People never have the right ones! We have and Apple USB Connector, and recently we requisitioned one of those Targus Multi-Connector Adaptors that plugs into USB. Works really well! 🙂 Also don't forget about Bluetooth, pretty much all phones now have it, in case the guest doesn't have the right cable.

My store uses its Photo hours for Photo, and there is always someone scheduled in GS and Photo at the same time.. We try not to use Photo as a crutch for Guest Service and vice versus, rather if Guest Service needs help we'll just pull a cashier that is Guest Service Trained to go help. Unless Photo is at a standstill of course, but these days it rarely has been!
 
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Imerzan said:
My store uses its Photo hours for Photo, and there is always someone scheduled in GS and Photo at the same time.. We try not to use Photo as a crutch for Guest Service and vice versus, rather if Guest Service needs help we'll just pull a cashier that is Guest Service Trained to go help. Unless Photo is at a standstill of course, but these days it rarely has been!
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The 4 hours a week we get allotted for photo isn't much of a crutch for service desk, really. And it ends up being a waste for photo since it's not like guests/orders are only going to come in during those times.
 
We get a solid 82 hours a week.. Full coverage during all hours of operation, 9am-9pm, 10am-8pm sunday. During the holidays hours were 100+/week, and while not as high, they're still up right now.

How can your Photo even function at 4 hours a week??!?!?! Target needs to give ULV stores some love... Seriously.
 
There are a few people who really know photo who we can only hope and pray are working if something goes completely haywire.

But this is what happened before Christmas at one point: I came in on an exceptionally busy Saturday for hardlines. I had barely announced my presence before I was being called over by the ETL-GE to help with toys/electronics. I walked by the photo lab, and the ETL-LOG who was helping watch the lanes (why, I don't know) snagged me to finish up a prints in minutes order because he needed help. Ok, fine. There were two tickets, with three different bar codes. One for like 30 4x6s, another for two 8x10s, and another for four 4x6s. So I get them ready to go, and I flag down the ETL-LOG who had been back there because the 4 4x6s were gone.

As in...they weren't printed, I think they had been released, and they were no where to be found. Meanwhile, the other ETL is squawking at me over the walkie to get over to electronics. I asked the ETL-LOG what happened, if they had gotten placed with another order, etc, and he told me he didn't know, to figure it out, and he walked off. Now, I can fit the amount of knowledge I have about photo on one sheet of paper (still more than my GSTL, sadly). I can't find these photos to save my life, the guest is staring at me, the two photo kiosks were in use, I couldn't find them on the printed orders, and no one will help me. And the other ETL is still looking for me. The guest mentions they are copies of one of the other prints in the first set...I flag down the GSA who says we can scan it. And walks off. Great....with what photo kiosk? My guest is getting antsy, and the photo kiosk with the scanner has someone who is going to be on it for a while. Meanwhile, they are still asking for me in electronics/toys.

I finally manage to flag down the GSA again...explain that I'd love to be a part of this (ok, maybe not), but I'm still confused, there's a guest at the photo kiosk you are intending to use, and it's now been 15 minutes and the other ETL is really getting grumpy with me, is there anyone else in the store who actually knows photo who can help? He finally tells me that he can take care of it and sends me on my way.

Naturally, this was a relatively easy fix of people who know absolutely nothing about photo staying out from behind the counter and those of us who know a little need to be supported by those who know more. And those of us who are expected to know more need to be able to actually be trained back there instead of trying to do it between guests (which never works out well).

And that's generally why I cringe at photo. I want to be helpful, and am not given the resources (training) or time to do it.
 
42 hours (12-6 Sun-Sat) during the year.
76 hours (10-9 Mon-Sat, 10-8 Sun) during the holidays.

Let's not even think about when ETLs cross Photo. My SL exec used to be GE, and she's been known to do photo pickups when I've been dealing with other issues and we had no coverage. Definitely one of the best ETLs I've ever worked with! My STL tried doing a pickup a few weeks ago, but the look on his face when he couldn't find the order in the drawer was priceless (protip: it was a greeting card order... so it was in the bottom drawer). My ETL-GE had no idea what the **** she's doing over there.
 
I feel like every year Target is shorting photo more and more.... We used to have KPT paper, but they got rid of that... I'm amazed that Matte paper has lasted as long as it did, but we'll be losing it along with the wet lab... Not to mention we are a digital only lab, you guys have no idea how much business I have to turn away because we can't do film!

If people can't get their Photos at Target, they're going to bring their business to Walgreens or Wal-Mart (they do photo right?)! And its not just about the Photos... Usually when people come to do photos they do other shopping and spend money in the store!
 
Imerzan said:
I feel like every year Target is shorting photo more and more.... We used to have KPT paper, but they got rid of that... I'm amazed that Matte paper has lasted as long as it did, but we'll be losing it along with the wet lab... Not to mention we are a digital only lab, you guys have no idea how much business I have to turn away because we can't do film!

If people can't get their Photos at Target, they're going to bring their business to Walgreens or Wal-Mart (they do photo right?)! And its not just about the Photos... Usually when people come to do photos they do other shopping and spend money in the store!
Click to expand...

You're going to get a bunch of Paid Postage envelopes which people can buy, stuff with a 35mm film roll or disposable camera, and toss in a mailbox. It's the same company that Walgreens, Wal Mart, CVS, and I'm sure others are using if they don't process film on-site.
 
Yeah we already have those. Haven't seen those move at all since we got them a little less than a year ago... Haha.
 
Digital age beat photo lab. I can print my photos at home. A guest told me that, because our lab cant print anything right now.
 
Put it this way - December week 3 we did avg ~$700/day in photo sales.
 
We were probably 1000+ i didnt check though. Last thursday I helped a lady do Wedding pictures/dvds, 500 something prints totalled out to like $140-150 when all was said and done.
 
Our ribbon ran out mid-order today on the one hour. I have no idea what the GSA did for the guest, who was not happy she couldn't get her pictures.
 
I take it you didn't have a spare ribbon? They're pretty easy to swap out.
 
We usually kept ours in the cupboard in the photo lab. I always made sure that GS TMs at least knew how to change out the ribbon and paper on the prints in seconds. Just in case I was on break or doing price challenge, then they wouldn't need to wait.

For one hour, I would make sure the GSA/GSTL knew I was going to be out of the photo lab (break, price challenge, helping out GS) so they'd know to keep an eye on it...and they were better at apologizing to guests than I was. 🙂

I haven't been in my old store since August and nor do I want to, but I am SO curious on how our lab is doing now...without me there to fix everything that goes wrong.
 
Yeah...no one was there yesterday that could do anything with photo, except release and package orders. Sundays are bad days to print photos at our store...there are only two possible people who might be in the store working (in different departments) who could fix something that day....nobody else who knows anything about photo works on Sundays.
 
Sounds like your store has some issues to work out! Management needs to get their heads out of their ass and make sure that Photo is operational EVERY day. They should take all of the blame, not you or your GSA, because they decided not to cross train people/schedule them those days.
 
Yeah, they want the GSTMs able to do photo (so we can cover photo and service desk together) but won't give us the hours to train...and doing it in between guests at the service desk is useless.
 
Retail Girl said:
Yeah, they want the GSTMs able to do photo (so we can cover photo and service desk together) but won't give us the hours to train...and doing it in between guests at the service desk is useless.
Click to expand...

Oh, I agree. I tried to train between guests at the service desk and it never worked. I finally overheard from HR that we had training hours (this was four years ago) and scheduled myself for training. That's how I got backroom trained, too...just took the bull by the horns and had someone train me. ETLs were not happy, but I ended up being a person they could pull to help out back there.

It was annoying trying to train cashiers because they never wanted to go back to cashiering after. Yes, photo has less guest interaction than cashiering, but I'm not scheduled to cashier. Go back up. 🙂

I'd pair with your GSTL and insist that more GS people get trained. Explain the benefits and how you're interested. I'd maybe talk to your GE too, but after your GSTL...take the proper steps. 🙂
 
I did it the opposite way last night and told the ETL-GE that I needed an hour of person x's time to get some good training in (I think he was the one wanting us photo trained anyway). He said to check the schedule, see when we are there together and they'd try to get that time in. I told the GSTL about it, who thought it was a great idea, and then showed me how to change the ribbon, paper, and a couple of other things.
 
you guys are lucky you even get photo hours. We literally get zero hours to schedule in photo every week. When they proposed this to the GE-ETL and me we we're dumbfounded but were promised that we would get more hours for GS. That happened for one week and then from the week after that we had our GS hours cut.

It was interesting to get through 4th quarter without a photo person and with only one person working in GS at a time. M
 
redandkhaki said:
you guys are lucky you even get photo hours. We literally get zero hours to schedule in photo every week. When they proposed this to the GE-ETL and me we we're dumbfounded but were promised that we would get more hours for GS. That happened for one week and then from the week after that we had our GS hours cut.

It was interesting to get through 4th quarter without a photo person and with only one person working in GS at a time. M
Click to expand...

That's generally what our fourth quarter looked like. Our 4 hours a week of photo are used to extend service desk to opening, or overlap for the middle of the day, or for someone to call the photo people when the machine blows up.
 
We had 3-4 people scheduled at gs, and 2 at photo pretty much all of december. We're lucky i know lol.
 
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